The civic media lab cultivates communities of activists, journalists, sociologists, developers, designers and students who are devoted to deepening democratic relationship between the people and their government, through advancement of digital technologies and responsive civic engagement.
There is a dire need for democracy to be redoubted across the world. The only way to achieve this is to ensure that every citizen has a fair participation in democracy. At the lab we believe that we have technology to make this happen.
In many developing countries Government institution have been weakened by the corrupting influence of dictators and corrupt politicians. The citizens have to step up and fill these cracks by creating institutions to replace or support government.
This is the force multiplier. Today, a large percentage of the population have in their hands enough technology to connect to and participate in democracy. However, there is a dearth of tools and platforms that can facilitate this.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
MEMBERS
PRODUCTS DEVELOPED
NEW COLLABORATIONS
In order to cultivate a vibrant community with the capacity to deepen democratic participation, we have designed some programs at the lab which are free for our members. You can visit us at the lab during any of our monthly events. Here are some of our upcoming events and some of the events we have done in the past.
The media lab, as an incubator for multi-focused civil society organizations, builds new tools that foster better communities of practice with the ultimate goals of deepening democratic participation.
Disruptive idea are generated through rigorous thought processes, Civic Media Lab encourages these processes.
We believe the whole is greater than a sum of its parts, hence at the lab we seek for new collaborations to increase the impact and reach of individual and collective effort.
Journalism has the best chance of fostering accountability and transparency in governance because of the new lease of life that internet technologies has given it. Journalism should be the silver bullet for deepening democratic participation.
Civic Media Lab is led by a team of multi-disciplinary experts who galvanize best practices across fields in keeping our communities in touch with recent realities.
Lakeisha co-founded the Civic Media Lab in 2017 and she still helps to guide the vision of the centre to emerge as a centre of excellence in media and journalism in Africa.
Oluwaseun runs the day to day activities in the lab, he is in charge of R&D and programs that are developed in the lab.
Habib Oladapo is our team lead for trainings and Investigations. At the lab he is in charge of trainings and management of investigations.
In our 3 year strategic plan we have outlined for areas we must achieve excellence to create the impact we have proposed. First of all we need to increase the capacity of journalists to do more investigative work, so that the mal-functioning sub-systems of our democracy and society is revealed and tweaked. Secondly, we must increase the rate of digital innovation and modernization by journalists so that they catch up quickly to the trends and retain their capacity to set the agenda. Thirdly, we must increase the accessibility and usage of public data in deepening democratic participation. Finally, we are building new communities of practice to foster accountability, transparency and good governance.
Learn about the latest events from the lab or enjoy some of the articles we have curated from our partners and members.
Africa has a fast-growing scientific production. Between 2012 and 2016, Africa’s scientific production rose rapidly by 39%, and the number of authors grew by 43%. This ...
The Newmark Graduate School of Journalism has announced the second 2021 cohort of the Product Immersion for Small Newsrooms program. 25 journalists from Europe, th...
In the third part of the series, the Civic Media Lab looks at the Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency and its output in the last five years. The Nigeria Natural ...
The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist design has been high...
The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist design has been high...
The Civic Media Lab will act as an interdisciplinary research laboratory devoted to projects ranging from technology, multimedia to science, art and design. Individuals w...
The media lab believes that the only way to achieve sustained impact is to orchestrate a synergy between various organizations with a core mission of deepening democratic participation. As a part of MacArthur’s On Nigeria cohort we share the same values of collaboration as a means of creating a force multiplier.
We would love to hear from you. You can follow Civic Media Lab from any of these channels or you can join the lab as a member.
Check out our latest projects
The lab is open for business to all organizations and individuals seeking new ways for deepening democratic participation. We welcome organizations wishing to pursue their civic projects within the lab or support an existing project.
Also we welcome freelance developers and journalists wishing to work on projects within the lab. We also offer our limited lab membership to these groups.
Presently, we work with Universities and student groups across the continent to help them participate in impactful civic projects.
We also foster cross-discipline collaborations between departments within different institutions.
